When most people think of addressing climate change, they often think in terms of fighting it. However, the Ypsilanti-based American Society of Adaptation Professionals (ASAP) and many others take a different approach: accepting that climate change's effects are already here and deciding how best to adapt.

"Climate adaptation recognizes that changes are already occurring, changes that are baked into our global climate, and we need to be preparing for those changes," says Beth Gibbons. Gibbons, an Ypsilanti resident and chair of the city's Sustainability Commission, served as ASAP's first executive director. 

ASAP helps connect climate change experts, from on-the-ground practitioners to academics; develops best practice guidelines; advises community groups on adaptation strategies; and more.

A nonprofit evolves

ASAP began informally in 2011 as a network of climate professionals within the Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC). Gibbons says she found out about it during a Midwest adaptation conference in 2012. Gibbons' job as ASAP's first executive director in 2016 and 2017 was to shepherd ASAP as it separated from ISC to become an independent nonprofit.

Professionals have been working in the area of climate adaption for 30 years, Gibbons says, so the concept of adaptation isn't completely new, but it's been getting more attention the last several years. She adds that climate mitigation work and adaptation are complementary, not opposed to one another.

"I would recommend that people consider that when climate adaptation work is done well, it also includes mitigation," Gibbons says. "There's a whole suite of activities we need to be doing."

Both Gibbons and ASAP's current executive director, Debra Butler, note that there's a social justice facet to climate adaptation work. 

"People most vulnerable from other economic and social factors are harmed first and worst by the impact of climate change," Gibbons says.

Gibbons says that climate adaptation work looks different depending on the affected region. For example, in the Midwest, storms are a top concern. Gibbons points to "bigger and more severe events" like the one that caused major damage to the Michigan Ave. branch of the Ypsilanti District Library. She says these storms bring "less water when you need it, and more water when you don't." 

"We're seeing much more rainfall in the fall and spring and less rain in summer," she says.

Gibbons says the land has a harder time capturing and using this water when it comes in "big gulps," and the effects can be seen in places like Detroit's East Side, where canals have seen "extensive damage" due to flooding.

"Those people are already socially vulnerable for many different reasons," she says, noting that Detroit has received funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to address flooding recovery.

ASAP today

Today, ASAP's network of about 900 people covers the U.S. and Caribbean, and is "venturing to work with Canadian practitioners and professionals," Butler says.
Debra Butler.
Butler says that the organization grew from a desire by adaptation professionals to "communicate, learn from each other, and develop a community of practice." In turn, this network would help communities figure out how to prepare for climate change effects. 

Butler says the organization has evolved over time to not only include scientists and academics but also on-the-ground practitioners, including Indigenous communities who may have access to "nature-based solutions."

She says a practitioner "might not be certified, but they might have been in the work a long time," she says. 

"I'm an academic, but [knowledge] doesn't always come from an academic source," Butler says. "What we see in practitioners who have a grounded, long-standing relationship with communities is that they understand the community and the lands the community sits on. The history of those lands can inform what the academics, engineers, and planners are doing."

She says ASAP works with municipalities and community organizations to discuss issues, solve problems, and learn from each other. 

"We can get the entities together to exchange information and tools, techniques, and practices, so they can create greater movement," Butler says. "

Butler insists that climate adaptation isn't about "doom and gloom" and it's not about giving up. A lot of interventions cost nothing and are more about changing behaviors, she says.

"We live and depend on the earth's system, and as we move through time, the earth's systems evolve. We have to figure out ways as humans to move with those changes," Butler says. "It's not about investing millions of dollars and energy into solutions that are temporary. We're thinking long-term."

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Beth Gibbons photo by Doug Coombe. Debra Butler photo courtesy of ASAP.